


Surprise me

by NKNovak



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, New York City
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 16:03:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21376789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NKNovak/pseuds/NKNovak
Summary: Everyone is born with a timer on their wrist, it runs out when they meet their soulmate.Eddie's time is up but he never met his soulmate.Richie, on the other hand, doesn't care.~Loosely based on notsocleverwriter's tumblr prompt: Soulmate!AU
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 109





	Surprise me

Eddie Kaspbrak wasn’t sure why he was up here. He needed fresh air, but he could’ve just gone downstairs instead of bursting through the roof door, forever propped open with brick so it doesn’t lock and leave someone who came to smoke or drink trapped. He could say he wanted to look out over New York City. When he first saw the skyline and the lights, he thought there was no way anyone could get sick of this view. He thought wrong, he was sick of it. 

He walked to the edge of the roof and looked down. The street was so far away, people were walking around, cars were racing through green lights before they turned red again, bright yellow taxis were pulling over to pick up passengers who couldn’t get an Uber. He hated them. Were those people happy? Eddie had no way of knowing but he assumed they were, and he hated them for it. 

Eddie stepped back from the edge. He scratched at his wrist trying to claw the blinking red zeros off but to no avail, it’d been like this since he was 13 and it hurt him more than his nails ever could. Eddie only stopped when blood started to drip down his arm. 

The numbers on his wrist, like the numbers on everyone else’s wrist, counted down the years till you met your soulmate eventually narrowing down by months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds as the time drew closer. However, sometimes the number would jump. One choice (either by you or your soulmate) could add or take away years from your counter. Blinking red zeros met one of two things. You met your soulmate, or your soulmate was dead. When Eddie first saw the blinking red zeros, he was ecstatic. It was the first day of high school, he hadn’t been paying too much attention to the counter, he didn’t know when it hit zero but knew that someone in his high school must be his soulmate. He was wrong. He was quickly outcasted by his fellow classmates. No one wanted to date him as their counters still had time or they met their soulmate and it wasn’t Eddie. Eddie couldn’t believe it. His soulmate must’ve died. Word traveled quickly in the high school eventually everyone in the town of Derry knew. Eddie was thankful to still have his friend, Stan, by his side. Still, the minute he got the chance to escape Derry, he took it. That opportunity came in the form of a scholarship to NYU. He’d hope to have a new start here but no matter where you were the zeros on your wrist were a stigma and no one could help, nor did they want to. 

Behind him, Eddie heard the creak and slam of the door being opened and hitting the brick as it closed. Eddie suddenly became aware of the tears that were rolling down his cheeks, he tried to wipe them away, whoever was up here probably wasn’t looking for him anyway, they would go away soon enough. “Hey Eddie” Eddie knew that voice, it was Richie Tozier “have you seen Bev anywhere I-”

“No” Eddie cut Richie off abruptly.

“She has my ci-”

“I didn’t ask,” Eddie said, standing still, he just wanted Richie to leave so he could wallow in his sadness by himself again. There was a moment of silence, but nothing signaled to Eddie that Richie had left. 

“What’s wrong Eds?” Richie asked.

“I always hated those stupid fucking nicknames, Richie!”

Richie, for once, didn’t reply with a bad joke or insult, he said, “I saw Bill met his soulmate.” Of all the things Richie could say, he had to bring up the one thing that Eddie came up here to escape, Eddie just nodded in response. He heard footsteps and watched Richie walk over to the ledge and sit down on the roof with his back against it. “That’s why you ran up here, right?”

That took Eddie by surprise, was he that fucking obvious? “Yeah. I knew it was going to happen, it doesn’t make it any easier”

“Why?” Richie asked.

“Why?” Eddie repeated.

“I know you're upset all the time because your time ran out and you haven’t found your soulmate, all that means is that you're free. You can do whatever you want and whoever you want. That soulmate stuff is all bullshit anyway”

Eddie didn’t know Richie very well, they weren’t close. Eddie was friends with Stan since they were kids, Stan was friends with Bill in high school, and Bill was childhood friends with Richie. Richie and Eddie should probably be closer since they went to high school together, but Eddie avoided spending time with Richie when at all possible, Richie just wasn’t the type of person Eddie liked to associate with. “You don’t know me, Richie, and soulmates are real, just because your going to be alone forever doesn’t mean I want to be” Eddie had no idea if Richie time had run out or not, he assumed it had because Richie had no interest in soulmates and he always had his timer covered by a leather bracelet.

“My parents were soulmates, their eyes met, and their timers ran out and it was just like in those stories, perfect and romantic. Then they got married and it all went downhill from there. Constant drinking and fighting, crying and threats to call the police rather than get divorced they had a kid, me, which just made everything worse. But they stayed together, and they will be together until they kill each other because they are soulmates.” Richie ran his fingers over his bracelet. “I keep my timer covered because I never want to know when my time runs out, I’m not going to let this soulmate bullshit tell me who I can and can’t love”

Eddie was shocked, he and Richie never talked about their personal life, never mind anything as personal as that. “I didn’t know. . .”

“You’re the lucky one, Eds, free of this whole soulmate thing, free from the stress” Richie then made a complete 180, his frown turned back into a smile, his somber mood replaced by his typical happy go lucky self. Richie turned around instead of having his back against the ledge he sat upon the ledge, legs dangling down the side of the building. He turned back and looked at Eddie as if he was asking Eddie to join him, Eddie sat down next to him and Richie said, “it’s a great big New York City out there, millions of people, Eds, waiting for us”

“Us?

Richie nodded and Eddie wondered if Richie ever peaked at his timer before it ran out. Did he meet his soulmate, did he turn her away? Eddie couldn’t help but wonder what that must have looked like, the girl probably cried or maybe she was happy the Trashmouth didn’t want to be with her. He wondered what the girl looked like.

“Unfortunately, not everyone thinks like you,” Eddie said, remembering all the times his zeros turned him into an outcast. “No one I ever met wanted to be with me, who wants to be with a guy whose time ran out?”

“I do” Richie replied. Richie was back to his old joking self, but there something about the way he said ‘I do’, Eddie knew he wasn’t joking.

“You’re serious? You and me?” Eddie asked, looks like all the rumors from high school were true, Richie's gay.

“I never said you and me” Richie laughed but then shrugged and said, “but why not?”

“Why not?” Eddie repeated, he could think of a million reasons why not. . . Well, he couldn’t think of any at the moment. . .

“Yeah, why not? You don’t have anything to lose.” Eddie looked Richie in the eyes, he was being genuine, maybe even hopeful? Every time, Eddie thought he knew Richie, he always found a way to surprise him even in high school. As if Richie could tell what Eddie was thinking he said, “I can be surprising, Eds.” On his face was smirk as he said the stupid fucking nickname again. “Trust me.”


End file.
